Called Kaiser Barril in Brazil, Birra Moretti Pallone in Italy, and Tapje in the Netherlands, Heineken’s PET DraughtKeg is catching on globally (see videos at www.bit.ly/pwe00482 and www.bit.ly/pwe00483).

According to Heineken’s Jeroen Otto, innovation development manager at Heineken headquarters in Amsterdam, the 4-L PET keg is a second-generation version of a 5-L steel version that was first introduced in 2006. The 4-L format was chosen for the PET package to make it even easier for consumers to fit the package in their refrigerator.

“The PET DraughtKeg came out in 2011 and will be used in parallel with the steel version for brands and markets where it’s judged to be suitable,” says Otto. “It’s a lightweight, compact, modern version of the steel DraughtKeg. We chose four liters for the PET version because it seemed like the best format to fit conveniently in most fridges.”

Otto says the PET DraughtKegs are filled at Heineken’s Den Bosch plant in the Netherlands on a specially designed filling line. In the same plant and on the same line, on a dual-mold system from Siapi, Heineken blow molds the containers from injection molded preforms supplied by APPE. APPE also was largely responsible for designing the container and, as APPE’s Michel Goovaerts puts it, “delivering a keg that works.”